Welcome to brain group! Fall 2019

Picking a paper For the love of science, pick a good paper. Read it ahead of time! Consider your audience General: new students, varied expertise Specific: systems/cognitive/computational neuroscience Busy (don’t pick a horribly long or technical paper) Would this paper be better for a different forum? Science, not techniques At the beginning of your presentation (or even in the email announcing your choice), tell us why you picked this paper.

Focus your presentation on these questions Why did you pick this paper? What’s the big question? How did they go about answering it? (focus on the logic) What’s the answer? Do we believe it? Is it important?

Focus your presentation on these questions Why did you pick this paper? What’s the big question? How did they go about answering it? (focus on the logic) What’s the answer? Do we believe it? Is it important? Your introduction should consist of (brief!) answers to all of these. This will focus the discussion. If you understand the paper, you will be able to answer all of these in a few minutes.

Focus your presentation on these questions of each figure ^ Why did you pick this paper? What’s the big question? How did they go about answering it? (focus on the logic) What’s the answer? Do we believe it? Is it important? Your introduction should consist of (brief!) answers to all of these. This will focus the discussion. If you understand the paper, you will be able to answer all of these in a few minutes.

Figure 2. Cut eye muscles, rotated eye

A spurious correlation: Age of Miss America correlates with Murders by steam, hot vapors, and hot objects 8 24 Age (years) Number of deaths 19 Cut eye muscles, rotated eye 2 Year (1999-2009)

Tips Use your title to make the main point. Focus on the story. Pick and choose which figures to present. Only put things on the slide that you will explain/discuss. Talk to us, not at us (or at the wall). “You should use statistics the way a drunk man uses a lamppost: for support rather than illumination” Andrew Lang

Steering the discussion It is okay to steer the discussion. You are the expert. Tell us at the beginning which aspects of the paper you want to focus on. Don’t waste time on the unimportant stuff. Feel free to rein us in.

Steering the discussion It is okay to steer the discussion. You are the expert. Tell us at the beginning which aspects of the paper you want to focus on. Don’t waste time on the unimportant stuff. Feel free to rein us in. Plan your presentation to end by 1:30. Plan your presentation as if I will pay you $10 for every minute before 2:00 that you end. Plan your presentation as if you owe me $100 for every minute after 2:00 that your presentation runs.

Steering the discussion It is okay to steer the discussion. You are the expert. Tell us at the beginning which aspects of the paper you want to focus on. Don’t waste time on the unimportant stuff. Feel free to rein us in. Plan your presentation to end by 1:30. Plan your presentation as if I will pay you $10 for every minute before 2:00 that you end. Plan your presentation as if you owe me $100 for every minute after 2:00 that your presentation runs. I’m looking forward to learning a lot from you this year! This won’t happen.